From the opening shot of Alpha, Julia Ducournau’s follow-up to her mind-melting Palme d’Or-winning body horror film Titane, you could be forgiven for thinking that you’re being eased into another tale ...

For a time, Julia Ducournau was known as the rising French queen of body horror. Her debut was the cannibalism-as-sexual-appetite allegory Raw, while her follow-up Titane, was a meditation on serial ...